The invention relates to hand-held appliances, such as hair clippers, hair dryers, hair blowers, curling irons, or the like, and to the use of waterproof switches in such appliances to reduce the danger of electrocution in the event the appliance becomes wet.
Waterproof switches are relatively expensive to manufacture and it is important to avoid such expensive costs in the very competitive appliance market.
In one prior device, a sealed chamber was formed in a wall supported member to house a relatively inexpensive switch by providing a recess in the wall supporting member and by closing and sealing the recess with a gasket and a cover, which gasket admitted electrical leads and a movable actuator into the sealed recess to effect switch operation while maintaining water tight integrity.
As mentioned, this device was wall mounted and was not adapted to be hand-held. Such a device is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,659,907, filed Mar. 21, 1983, but there is no disclosure in this application of a switch located in a sealed recess.
Attention is directed to the following U.S. patents:
______________________________________ Ulbing, et al. 4,105,882 Issued: August 8, 1978 Scott, et al. 4,342,894 Issued: August 3, 1982 Eicker, et al. 4,395,608 Issued: July 26, 1983 Doyle 4,520,256 Issued: May 28, 1985 Anderson 1,869,646 Issued: August 2, 1932 ______________________________________
Attention is also directed to British Patent document: Great Britian No. 2,163,294.